After more than a week of personal appearances from Eva Gabrielsson in support of her much anticipated memoir, There are Things I Want You To Know About Stieg Larsson and Me, Seven Stories Press publisher Dan Simon reports that the book has more than 43,000 copies in print and has landed on the National Indiebound Bestseller List and on several regional lists.
Simon also reports glowing reviews of the book from the New York Times’ David Carr in next Sunday’s New York Times Book Review and a “rave review” in the Toronto Globe and Mail. At the end of June ( the book was released June 21), Gabrielsson spent a bit more than a week making appearances in Canada and the U.S. to support the book, which looks at her life with the late journalist and bestselling author Steig Larsson. Simon said after interviews in the Toronto print press and on Canadian TV, Gabrielsson arrived in New York for an interview on the Today Show and for a public interview with Gloria Steinem at the 92nd Street Y.
Simon said the book was selling about a 1,000 books a day and has sold “about a quarter” of the books Seven Stories has distributed in the marketplace. Simon emphasized that the media coverage was just beginning. Vanity Fair ran a 4,000 word first serial excerpt from the book in its July issue and a two-page feature in Harper’s Bazaar is coming in August. She lectured in front of enthusiastic audiences as part of the City Arts Lectures during a stop in San Franciso; and at Seattle Town Hall and visited independent bookstores and the B&N Union Square flagship store here in New York. Simon said NPR will broadcast a recording of Gabrielsson’s City Arts Lecture. In addition Seven Stories has also created a Website, StiegandEva.com, with video and review links as well as an interactive map of locations in Stockholm, featuring both the fictional Millennium world and from Stieg and Eva's life together.
“We’re very gratified that the media and the independent booksellers have been supportive of an unknown author and a difficult and complex story,” Simon said. "She conjured up the vision of Stieg Larsson that everyone responds too; someone resolute, enduring, full of political and moral passion. You get a sense of the person she loved so much," Simon said. "She said that the book reaffirms what readers already feel about Stieg," Simon said.
